Madonna's latest album Hard Candy

May 18, 2008, 02.09 AM IST

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Ah Madonna! Pop star, actress, writer, humanitarian, film maker, mother and the list goes on. She would not let you remember that she is 49 pushing 50 or rather who would like to! With her 11th studio album Hard Candy, Madonna aims higher. She still loves the dance floor and her cat suits and possess the skill to metamorphose herself into anything.

She has always stayed flexible with sound too, adapting to the current musical taste, thus enslaving every generation of music listeners. Its not surprising than that this time with Hard Candy Madonna has left her decade-long disco fetish, making way to funk and hip hop pulse working with two of music���s heavyweight producer ��� Timberland and the Neptune ��� and collaborating with teen sensations Justin Timberlake and Nate Hills.

Unlike Confessions On A Dance Floor, here she steers clear of religion and politics, sticking to the mainstream appetite of love, relationship and sex. All, except three songs, cater to the party and dance floor vibe. In Miles Away Madonna sounds vulnerable singing for her far away lover. In The Devil Wouldn���t Recognize You the sound of thunder and rain adds to a theatrical dimension. Few of the dance numbers do sound clich�� such as Give It To Me where she sings teen style ���Get stupid, get stupid... don���t stop���.

Nevertheless, the beats are quite bouncy and it has a feel-good pop factor to it. Madonna���s Spanish experiment Spanish Lesson does not work much though. The diva Madonna speaks up when she sings ���She started reading my books and stealing my looks...��� in She���s Not Me. Surprisingly, in first singles, 4 minutes, Madonna isn���t the star but definitely one of the songs with a big potential to hit the charts, what with Madonna and Timberlake exchanging shouts depicting their sexual repartee! Though she has tried to balance it up with love songs, it is on Hard Candy���s club oriented tracks that she excels.

Instead of growing more conservative with, age Madonna has grown more adventurous. Hard Candy does not disappoint and will definitely get its fair share of play on the dance floor. From Like A Virgin to She Is Not Me, Madonna sure knows the art staying at the top.